


Shaky Hands

by MCUsic_to_my_ears



Series: Whumptober 2019 [1]
Category: Iron Man (Comics), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Denial, F/M, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, I couldn't resist, Illnesses, Major Illness, Parkinson's Disease, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Whump, Whumptober, Whumptober 2019, Worry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-02
Updated: 2019-10-02
Packaged: 2020-11-22 06:35:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20869793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MCUsic_to_my_ears/pseuds/MCUsic_to_my_ears
Summary: Tony Stark knew something was wrong. He just hoped nobody else did.***Whumptober 2019 Day 1: Shaky Hands





	Shaky Hands

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know anyone with Parkinson's disease, so obviously my depiction could be SUPER wrong. Apologies in advance!

It wasn’t a big deal at first. Peter definitely didn’t notice and Tony barely did at first. He was getting older, bodily retaliation from ten years of disregarding his physical aches was to be expected. He’d spent his twenties wasting away in booze and drugs, then kicked everything to an eleven and became a superhero. It fit that his retirement was marked by an uncooperative body. He didn’t deserve any less. 

Then he dropped a blow torch. 

“Mr. Stark?” Peter called, sticking his safety goggles on his forehead. He slid his rolling chair towards his mentor’s workbench. “Everything alright?”

Tony blinked at the concrete floor. Thankfully, the device had automatically clicked off, otherwise it would have started searing the floor. The engineer shifted his focus to his hands, which were still trembling. He clenched his fingers into a fist to try and stop the shaking but to no avail. 

“Mr. Stark?” Peter repeated. He looked over at his mentor. “What’s wrong?”

Tony shook his head. “Nothing, Pete.” He sighed. “You finished with the welding yet?”

Peter shrugged. “Almost.” He still watched Tony skeptically. 

The engineer straightened, ignoring his tool on the floor. “How about you get that done and we call it a night? Pepper will be happy if we finally made it to dinner on time for once.” 

Peter gave the billionaire a confused look, but agreed nonetheless. 

If Tony expended extra focus on not spilling his soup everywhere that night, then it was Peter’s fault for staring.

***

Tony always had a stiff neck. Call him crazy, but he’d never paid it much mind, what with the superheroing and the falling asleep in the lab. What was new was the stiff leg. Every step felt like he was dragging a ton of concrete behind him. He started having Dum-E fetch him things in the lab more just so he wouldn’t have to move. If Peter noticed, he didn’t say anything. When he did have to walk, he’d noticed that his arms didn’t move. Pepper used to tease him that he would start flying away with how much his arms swung when he was in a hurry, but now they stayed planted firmly by his side. 

“I’ve lost my sense of childhood wonder,” he joked when she commented on it on their way to a shareholder meeting. He’d started going to more of those, since arguing seemed pointless these days. 

Pepper snorted. “You? I doubt it. You’re getting old,” she teased.

“So are you.” Pepper had started dying her hair earlier that month, a task she was none too happy with. 

She rolled her eyes. “Clever,” she retorted, clicking on her phone to answer a call. Tony couldn’t help but feel relieved that he no longer had to juggle controlling his uncooperative tongue and dragging his good-for-nothing legs down to the conference room. 

***

The next trip up was a lot more public than Tony was hoping for. He knew something was wrong. Fifty going on sixty shouldn’t mean the end of his motor control. His hands shook constantly without proper attention. He used straws despite Peter’s chastising because otherwise he would spill water everywhere. Almost all of his work in the lab had become hypothetical, with blueprints scrawled in his too small handwriting sent to the R&D team leaders to decipher. FRIDAY spent more time keeping people out of the lab than ever before. Tony didn’t want anyone to see him like this. 

But when claims that Tony was dead because he hadn’t been seen in public for a while started surfacing, Pepper insisted he had to a press conference to disprove the accusation. 

“It’s a lot faster and far more effective than SI issuing a statement,” Pepper informed him. 

Peter nodded emphatically from where he did his calculus homework at the counter. “And then they can jump ahead to theories on whether you’re a clone or a hologram,” he added. “Instead of just thinking that SI killed you and is hiding it from the public.”

So with that in mind, Tony stood at a podium a day later surrounded by flashing cameras and clamoring reporters. He read from a script, reading glasses slipping down his nose. “I am, obviously, still alive, so any questions concerning that should be answered now.” As he spoke, the crowd silenced.

He looked up. “Where’s the sudden respect coming from?” he joked. No one laughed as his own words trickled into his ears. Run together, uncontrolled. He sounded drunk, but Tony knew he was anything but. The day Peter came into his life was the day he kissed booze goodbye. 

He cleared his throat before continuing, self-conscious. “I’ve been focusing on design recently, which is why I haven’t been showing off too much new tech: I haven’t been the one building it. Figured I’d let the younger generation be hands on for a change.” He glanced up, seeing only somber faces. The cameras rolled. Tony tried to gain control of his ill-performing mouth. He glanced to his left to see Pepper’s concerned expression. “Anyways, since that’s cleared up, I hope we can all forget about the murder conspiracies for a while. My intern said that people might think I’m a clone now, so have fun with that one for a while, I guess.” He grimaced at his lack of charm. 

The next words on the page prompted him to ask the audience for questions, but he was already exhausted and embarrassed. “Adios,” he mumbled, before lumbering off the small stage. Pepper ushered him out of the room of disoriented journalists. 

“What just happened?” she asked. 

His hands shook. He shoved them into his pockets. 

“I won’t ask you if you’re drunk because I don’t want to insult you, but what the hell was that?”

Tony rocked on his legs, barely able to keep standing. 

“I think I need to see a doctor,” he slurred, wincing. 

Pepper stared at him, mouth open. He glanced up, eyes twinging with effort to keep calm. 

“Alright,” she murmured. 

“Alright.”

***

When Peter came to the Tower the next day, Tony sat him down in the living room. 

“What’s wrong?” An echo from so many months earlier. Now, Tony knew the answer. 

“Pete, did you see the press conference yesterday?”

Peter shifted uncomfortably. “Yeah. I, um. Thanks for the shout out,” he answered weakly. 

The mentor nodded. “I…” he sighed. “I went to my doctor this morning.”

“Oh my- Is everything okay? Are you- are-?”

“Hold on buddy, I’m not dying.”

Peter shook his head. “Then what?”

Tony glanced around the room. Photos of Peter and Pepper dotted the walls. Particularly passionate fan art of their alter egos as well. The furniture was well lived in, a far cry from the firm leather couch that used to fill the space. Now, in the room where he had first offered Peter a place in his family, he was about to explain why it wouldn’t last. 

“It’s not fatal,” Tony announced finally. “It’s just… difficult.”

Peter stared at him. “Mr. Stark-”

“I have Parkinson’s disease.” He let go of his breath. “Probably. Not all the results are in but…”

Peter pulled Tony into a hug before he could continue. 

“It’s not fatal?” Peter confirmed. 

Tony nodded into the boy’s shoulder. 

“Then I don’t care. As long as-” Peter shook his head. “We can get you a wheelchair, just don’t scare me like that again.”

“Alright Pete.”

“Everyone at school thinks you’re a clone now though. You were wearing glasses. That’s their proof.”

***

Tony did end up getting a wheelchair. Pepper insisted after he fell for the third time. 

But he also got to hold Peter and Michelle’s daughter five years later. He got to step down as head of R&D after Peter got his doctorate. When Pepper retired, they would sit on the porch of their log cabin and watch the sunset, long after she stopped dying her hair. And years after that, when there was a new Ironman and a new Avengers, Tony got to shake their hand and wish them luck. His mind was as sharp as ever, even if his body didn’t aid it anymore. 

And when he passed away in his sleep, some thirty years after he first dropped the blow torch, someone else’s eyes opened. Peter’s theories weren’t half wrong as the string of ones and zeros began to assist in everything Tony had retired from. 


End file.
